Announcement of an Exempt Purchase

Analysis to measure high-accuracy quantification of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soil, biosolids, water, and plant tissue. These analyses are essential to meeting the projects research goals, which include determining PFAS concentrations in field soils amended with biosolids and evaluating PFAS uptake by crops. PFAS are trace-level contaminants that require specialized analytical instrumentation, strict QA/QC procedures, and certified laboratory capabilities that are not available within our university facilities. Outsourcing to a qualified laboratory is therefore necessary to obtain defensible, regulatory-compliant data. The selected vendor is one of the few laboratories with validated PFAS methods for soils, biosolids, and plant materials and the ability to achieve the required detection limits using isotope-dilution LC-MS/MS. Other laboratories either do not provide validated PFAS analysis for these matrix types, cannot achieve the required detection limits, or lack the QA/QC rigor necessary for defensible scientific data. Therefore, the selected vendor is uniquely positioned to satisfy our projects analytical requirements.

This purchase is exempt from the usual selection processes of the Procurement Code because the procurement expenditure is for performing sponsored research and other sponsored activities under grants and contracts funded by the sponsor or by sources other than State appropriations. (30 ILCS 500 / 1-13(b)(8)) .